Moscow Rejects European Union’s Criticism of Blacklist

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov has called European reactions “absurd”, following the Kremlin’s release of a blacklist of 89 individuals barred from entering Russia. The EU feels that banning European political and military authorities – including 4 Frenchmen (Bernard-Henri Lévy, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Bruno Le Roux and Henri Malosse) – is unjustified. “These sanctions apply only to the authorities who have been most active in their support of the coup d’état which marked the beginning of discrimination towards Russians in Ukraine,” stated Lavrov. “I remind you that the EU has imposed similar restrictions on some 150 Russians,” he said. Moscow rejects Western accusations of military involvement in Eastern Ukraine. It also accuses the West of having orchestrated the Maidan demonstrations in Kiev, which resulted in the fall of former president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.